Tag Archives: British butterflies

Painted lady caterpillars

03 Monday Aug 2026

Posted by in insects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , ,

Some of the 20-plus Painted lady butterflies (Vanessa cardui) in yesterday’s enchanting wildflower meadow were faded so probably migrants, but many had colours that were rich and vibrant, leading me to think they were most likely locally bred and recently emerged. This new generation contains the butterflies that will migrate from Britain in the autumn, returning to the locations where their parents originated.

Perhaps due to the large numbers of Painted ladies that arrived here this year, I have, for the first time, seen many Painted lady caterpillars. My butterfly bible, Peter Eeles’s Lifecycles of British & Irish Butterflies, tells me the female lays up to 500 eggs, each singly, most often on thistles but also on burdocks, Common nettle, and mallows amongst others.

After it hatches, the larva spins itself a little web in which to live, eating away the surrounding leaf, until its food is exhausted. It them moves to a new leaf and spins another web (as the caterpillar in the photo above is doing), and so it continues for approximately four weeks when it reaches its fifth instar and is ready to pupate.

These miniature leaf-and-silk structures are quite obvious on plants like thistles; you can usually see the caterpillar inside and there is an accumulation of frass in the bottom of the structure. Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to find a pupa – that is also found inside a specially spun silk tent of leaves … maybe next year.

A meadow full of Painted ladies

02 Sunday Aug 2026

Posted by in insects, wildflowers

≈ 10 Comments

Tags

, , , ,

I had a different blog planned for today (though it was also about this butterfly, and will follow tomorrow) but, after spending a magical hour in this wildflower meadow today, spellbound at the sight of at least twenty, probably more Painted ladies, I just had to share my enchantment with you.

NFY: Grayling

30 Thursday Jul 2026

Posted by in insects

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

This is the last post from my recent mini-break in Weymouth, another first butterfly sighting for 2026 from my first meander around the former quarries on the Isle of Portland. These are, of course, Graylings (Hipparchia semele).

By happy coincidence, the Graylings had just started emerging when I visited. During my first walk around Tout and King Barrow quarries, on 9 July, I only saw two of these cryptically coloured butterflies. Just two days later, another quarry exploration produced more than 20 Graylings, with several flitting around me at once in one particular location, much to my delight.

I usually take the train up one of the local Welsh valleys to Aberbargoed coal spoil tip in July to see the only local population of these butterflies that is accessible to me as a non-driver. This year, with much of Britain sweltering under our third heatwave of the year, I haven’t made that trek, so I was even more grateful to have seen such numbers of Grayling in Dorset.

NFY: Lulworth Skipper

27 Monday Jul 2026

Posted by in insects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , ,

It was during my visit to Weymouth and the Isle of Portland in June last year that I saw my first Lulworth skippers (Thymelicus acteon) – in fact, they were one of the main reasons I made that particular trip (I wrote about that visit in last year’s blog, Lifer: Lulworth skipper).

The Lulworths had only just emerged when I visited in 2025 so I only saw males. This year my visit was a month later, and both males and females were flying in good numbers. As you can see in my photo of a female above, these little beauties can be identified by the circle of lighter, golden marks on their wings.

There’s something a little cheeky about these Lulworth skippers. They may be tiny, with a wingspan of just 28mm, but they’re feisty, particularly the males. I noticed them flying quite aggressively at any other, larger butterflies that moved through their territories, and bravely stayed perched on their chosen twig or wildflower when a monster like me approached them. The latter was particularly helpful when I was trying to get photos, of which I now have rather a lot.

NFY: Chalkhill blue

24 Friday Jul 2026

Posted by in insects

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

A July visit to Dorset’s south coast was always intended to be about butterflies (and dragonflies) rather than birds, and so it proved to be. I missed seeing one of my target butterfly species; the Silver-studded blues seem to have been affected by this year’s continuing heatwaves, beginning their season earlier than usual and only reported flying on Portland for about four weeks, a much shorter period than usual. Try as I might, and despite getting great advice from locals, I failed to find any. But their absence was more than made up for by the Chalkhill blues (Lysandra coridon).

I think you’ll agree that these are stunningly beautiful butterflies. The silvery blue of the male is more subtle and delicate than the flashy brilliance of the Adonis blue, while the female’s upper wings are a rich chocolate brown, often with a sprinkling of blue close to her body.

My photographs here show, in descending order, a female with wings closed, showing the underside patterning and colouration; a female with open wings; a male with closed wings, showing his underside colours; and, finally, an open-winged male.

Despite the heat, I wandered Tout and King Barrow, the former quarries on the Isle of Portland, several times during this visit and, each time, I was rewarded with an increasing number of pristine sightings of these stunning butterflies, as they continued to emerge from pupation. I was in butterfly heaven, even though it felt hotter than hell!

NFY: Marbled white

20 Monday Jul 2026

Posted by in insects

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , ,

Amazingly, I didn’t see my first Marbled white (Melanargia galathea) of the year during my recent week on the south coast of Dorset, nor during any other recent jaunts away from home. Though this butterfly species is not resident locally, my first sighting this year was on 29 June just a couple of miles from home at Lavernock Nature Reserve. Even more surprisingly, I didn’t see just one, but rather two of these stunning butterflies, and a couple of local chaps I talked to had seen six (!) the previous day. As we had just experienced our second heatwave of the year, from the 22nd to the 25th of June, it’s likely that these butterflies had been blown across the Bristol Channel from England on the hot nor’easterly winds we experienced during those few days.

I love these stunningly patterned butterflies so I was very pleased to have timed my latest visit to Weymouth and the Isle of Portland with their peak flying time of mid June to mid July. Despite my visit also coinciding with our third heatwave of the year (I’d booked my travel several months earlier), by leaving my guesthouse before 7am, I still managed to spend many hours over several days wandering around the disused quarries on Portland, thrilled to be surrounded by these, and many other, butterfly species.

In his Life Cycles of British & Irish Butterflies, Peter Eeles explains that the aposematic colouring of this black-and-white butterfly is thought to deter potential predators, the flavonoids from the food ingested by its larva making both larva and adult taste bad. Eeles also notes that these flavonoids ‘make the butterfly more visible to potential to potential mates thanks to the ultra-violet reflection from the flavonoid-rich white areas that contrast with the blacks on the wings’. Wouldn’t it be amazing to see what the butterflies see?

If you’re wondering why the Marbled whites in some of my photos have a brown hue that’s because the female of the species, though still having the black-and-white marbling on her upper wings, exhibits a pale brown tint on the undersides and on the leading edge of her forewings.

NFY: White admiral & Silver-washed fritillary

17 Friday Jul 2026

Posted by in insects

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

, , , , , ,

My annual pilgrimage to Slade Wood, in the neighbouring county of Monmouthshire, on Thursday 2 July, was an absolute joy! If you’ve been here a while, you’ll know that I go to the woodland each year around the beginning of July as it’s the closest, most accessible location for me to try and see two very special butterfly species.

This year I only managed to see two White admirals (Limenitis camilla), and one of those was just a tantalising glimpse as it flew across the woodland ride above me. And, though I waited and watched, it did not reappear. Luckily for me, about a third of the way along the main ride I spotted a second White admiral moving around the lower branches of a tree. These butterflies often have a favourite perch they return to frequently – I hoped I had found it but, unfortunately, the butterfly flew off and also did not reappear.

The Silver-washed fritillaries (Argynnis paphia) were much more numerous, and more co-operative, and the reason for my joy. In fact, I saw more of them at Slade Wood that day that I’ve ever seen in previous years. I’m not talking about hundreds of butterflies but somewhere between ten and twenty, and they’re just the ones I could see along the ride; there were sure to be more gliding around amongst the trees.

These butterflies are large, impressive, stunningly beautiful. Having them float past within inches of me, chase each other among the vegetation, settle to feed within touching distance – moments like these are bliss for a butterfly lover like me.

Holly blues love poo!

15 Wednesday Jul 2026

Posted by in insects

≈ Comments Off on Holly blues love poo!

Tags

, , , , , ,

In all but the most northerly parts of Britain, Holly blue butterflies have two broods every year (and, very very occasionally, in southern Britain, depending on the weather, a late third brood), and the males of the second brood started to emerge in my area around the end of June.

As with many butterfly species, though the Holly blue butterfly feeds primarily on aphid honeydew, the males also gravitate towards damp earth, decaying vegetable matter, and the poo of other creatures, which might seem fairly disgusting to us humans, but is for them the source of essential salts and minerals.

Judging by the number of Holly blues I saw doing this at a local park recently (two males together in two separate locations), they seem to feed this way very soon after they hatch. I’ve since read that the salts they absorb from this feeding behaviour help to fuel their flight muscles and also that they then transfer the minerals to female Holly blues when they mate, which helps with egg production, so it makes sense that this mineral and salt absorption happens before they start searching for emerging females to mate with.

NFY: Gatekeeper

14 Tuesday Jul 2026

Posted by in insects

≈ Comments Off on NFY: Gatekeeper

Tags

, , ,

Though the precise timing does depend on the weather, over the last 10 years the dates on which I see my first Gatekeepers (Pyronia tithonus) rarely vary by more than a few days, around the end of June and the start of July. This year my first sighting was on 28 June, and it was at the same location as in several of the past years, fluttering around vegetation by a gate in to one of the fields at Cosmeston Lakes Country Park. If only all creatures were so predictable – though that would be much less of a challenge!

NFY: Essex skipper

11 Saturday Jul 2026

Posted by in insects

≈ Comments Off on NFY: Essex skipper

Tags

, , , ,

It’s that time of year when every Small skipper I see has the potential to be an Essex skipper (Thymelicus lineola), so I spend a lot of time watching these little butterflies skipping up and down amongst the grasses and wildflowers, waiting for them to settle so I can try to get a better look at them.

If they’re males, a good view of the dark stripes on their upper wings can clinch an ID; if they’re females, a front-on view of the undersides of the tips of their antennae is required (see my blog Small or Essex?, July 2022). Both views can be tricky given the small size of these butterflies, their meandering flight, their remarkable ability to vanish in plain sight, and their tendency to land facing the ‘wrong’ way.

Fortunately, my persistence (some might say my stubbornness) has paid off, and I’ve now seen Essex skippers in several different locations. The butterfly shown here was the first.